It explains, mainly through examples in chemistry and physics, what are the required components for "complex behaviors" to occur within dynamical systems. It does not insist on the technicalities proper to the examples but rather tries to gather what one can learn from specific situations concerning the necessary components for complexity to arise.

Focus is on intuition and global understanding, not on mathematical aspects. However, some knowledge in math would certainly help...a first course in probability theory and some background in dynamical systems is a good idea (at the level of undergraduate courses in pure and applied sciences).

All explanations are not rigorous but the objective is to provide a good intuition about the mechanisms driving complexity. Recommended for all people interested in stochastic modeling and chaos theory.

Since non-equilibrium science and complexity theory where actually shaped and influenced by the Brussels school, anybody interested in a concise -yet readable- introduction would do well to start with this book. Written by Nicolis and Prigogine, it will enlighten and entertain you. Some knowledge of math helps when reading this book, but the level is intermediate, thereby making it suitable for a rather large group of interested readers. I found myself reading the book in stages, taking the time to ponder various topics and issues before continuing again. It really made me wonder, and I learned a lot from it (ironically, I actually learned more from this book than from the -much- more advanced books by the author(s) that cover the same material).

This may be the most exciting, ingenious plot-oriented book I've ever read. Gripping!

Wow!

You know you're buying an entertainment gem when the price-tag weighs in at a mere 210 bucks!

For real, Prigogine and Nicolas, G. blow Tom Clancy away! It's like Grisham on steroids! Crichton on amphetamines! Stephen King -- on a good day!

Rip-roaring fun! Buy "Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations" and prepare for the roller coaster ride of your life! Gripping entertainment! Huge fun! Highly recommended!

Nobel Laureate Prigogine describes how the lack of infinitely precise measurements and non-linear behavior in the laws of nature give rise to the arrow of time experienced by all of us. His results seem completely natural in everyday experience where you never see a broken glass on the floor jump back on the table and reassemble itself. Prigogine shows that the current laws of physics, when used in a mathematical framework that excludes perfect measurements, gives rise to laws of nature where an uncertain future must follow the past. An excellent, but technical, book.

Much controversy from what i can see from other reviewers...

Nevertheless, whether or not you think an "arrow of time" exists or not, this book at least has the merit of making people think about the "objective existence" of an "arrow of time". The question is not about convincing you that this arrow exists, but it tries to provide evidence gathered from thermodynamics that it could be the case indeed !

You'll probably enjoy this book in any case because it presents the question of "time" in a very broad (multi-disciplinary) manner. Even if it goes into technicalities from quantum mechanics that everybody is not due to understand (i'm amongst them...), it allows to be read from the begin to the end without a stop, proving it is not that complicated...

In a direct extension of his Nobel-prize-winning work on thermodynamics,Prigogine explains that almost all natural systems are non-determinsitic, even if all their components are subject to deterministic laws. This is because such systems have enormous numbers of Poincare resonances which lead to fundamentally non-deterministic solutions. This provides a solution to 3 of the most important problems in science: 1. Time's arrow 2. The Measurement Problem in QM 3. The existence of Freewill.

Everyone who is seriously interested in these questions should read this book.

The whole problem with writing about a book, and especially this one, is that one has to cut a long story short. A story long enough to encompass a fair amount of scientific history - elaborated, if not referenced exhaustively. Not that it is meant to be. Prigogine's journey does not offer to take you by the hand for a guided tour of order, complexity and self-organisation. Rather, it keeps to the spirit of Toffler's introduction, (Was it coincidental that it was the other way round?!) where he talks about the wonderful art of scientific dissection. Order out of chaos, however, is a difficult read for the anyone who has been initiated into the scientific non-fiction. For those who expect the book to be a popular account of concepts in complexity and self-organisation, the intense style and the depth of detail can be exhausting. Like Penrose in the Emperor's New Mind, Prigogine's style is uncompromising. Toffler's introduction is fitting, if only in parts. The book does not offer explanations. Rather, Prigogine prefers to illumate his readers with his keen philosophical bent. It is here that the book triumphs. The effort that has gone into integrating the ideas in the book, the subtle nuances reflecting Prigogine's own views is truly commendable. But then, one should be fairly conversant with the loopholes that science finds itself in. The description of the behaviour of complex systems warrants some mention. The idea of switching between reality and mathematical description does not gel with the rest of the narrative in parts - specially when chemistry is the running example. Well, Prigogine wasn't writing the book with the intention of it being self-contained - and he makes no bones about it. That is the seed of inspiration, I suppose, for any writer, be it for the cause of science or for the sheer love for the written word. Prigogine has shown that philosophy is in some way inseparable from what many consider the scientist's playground. And we are glad that he has shared his views with us.

Prigogine argues persuasively that he has reconciled classical dynamics with the human conviction that the future cannot be predicted from a knowledge of initial conditions and differential equations alone. He draws the reader through his own intellectual odyssey from classical thermodynamics, through linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics, and finally to his holy grail of nonlinear nonequilibrium thermodynamics. I suspect he has identified the quantitative tools that will connect the Human Genome Project to a functional understanding of cell biology and physiology. Tools capable of dealing with complexity.
If you are a scientist who has followed these disciplines from afar, and who has wished for a succinct summary that does not shrink from rigor, then acquire this book. You will chuckle at the constant barbs directed across the English Channel, and you will learn wonderful things about thermodynamics and thermokinetics. So few scientific books reveal the authors' insights. Instead, they teem with facts and formulas. Prigogine and Stengers have bedded physics with philosophy as if they were matchmakers for an illicit tryst. You will find yourself whispering, "Aha!" And you will, as I have, wear out your pen with underlining. I loved Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World", but Sagan was speaking to everyman. Prigogine and Stengers are speaking to scientists in fields outside their own. They believe they have seen the light, and they want you to see it too. Give them the chance to convince you. You will not be disappointed.

easily read in layman's terms to understand the basic principles of chaos mathematics.